Um... Ok, I edited the shell that vsb uses, but it only works when I'm testing a visual style. any clues on how to make it permanent?
That's because VSB uses its own shellstyle.dll when testing your theme. Why not just use the Reload Test function?
Anyway, when you stop the Test mode in VSB, it reverts back to your last used theme (including shellstyle). Alternatively, you can save and select the option to use the saved theme. That should work as well, but I haven't tried, yet.